Board Meeting, June 20, 2014

Details

Agenda: In addition to board business, the meeting will include an in-depth examination of the Martís and a panel discussion on democracy in Latin America.

Panelist bios:

Carlos Alberto Montaner was born in Havana in 1943 and has lived in Madrid since 1970. A former university professor, he is an acclaimed writer and journalist. Montaner has written more than 25 books, thousands of articles and several novels. His syndicated column appears in dozens of newspapers in the United States, Latin America and Spain and often comments on the nature of Cuban dictatorship. Additionally, in October 2012 Foreign Policy magazine selected Montaner as one of the fifty most influential intellectuals in the Iberoamerican world.

Dr. Gisela Parra, was the President of the Council of the Magistracy of Venezuela, when Chavez took office in 1998. In 2000 she was described as a victim of “persecution, repression, accusations without legal basis and procedure without the right to defense.” Parra is “living proof that in Venezuela there is no democracy, there is no respect for legality or advocacy of any kind.” Parra came to the United States in 2005, as political refugee. In 2013 Parra became the Executive Secretariat for the Venezuela Unity Table (MUD) and aims to offer assistance to Venezuelans in the United States and to promote democratic ideology among youth.

Dr. Carlos Sanchez Berzain is a Bolivian politician, lawyer and professor. He also serves as the director of the Interamerican Institute for Democracy. Throughout the 1990s he held many positions in the Bolivian government, including State Minister, Cabinet Minister and he was Minister of Defense in 2003. He promoted and participated in the Constitutional Reform 1994-95 and led the fight against drug trafficking in Bolivia for over three years and promoted alternative development. Berzian has authored publications on issues of constitutionality, freedom, democracy and institutionalism in the Americas. He currently has political asylum in the U.S.

Dr. Guillermo Lousteau, President of the Interamerican Institute for Democracy lawyer and doctor in law and philosophy., He has a master’s degree in international relations and was devoted to lead Southern University teaching. Lousteau and was Secretary of tourism from ‘ 80 to ‘ 82. In 2000, already retired, he settled in the United States and accepted a position at the University of Florida. Since then, he directed a master’s degree in political science, presides over the Argentine Cultural Center in Miami. He founded, and created the Interamerican Institute for Democracy (IIE), an NGO for the promotion, defense, education and promotion of freedom, democracy and institutions in Latin America

Documents

Recording

Part 1 – Board Business

Part 2 – OCB Deep Dive

Part 3 – Panel Discussion on Democracy in Latin America (in Spanish)

Press Release

Board Explores Strategy for Engaging Cuban Audiences

MIAMI – The Broadcasting Board of Governors met today at the Office of Cuba Broadcasting to examine opportunities for the Martís and their impact as Cuba experiments with incremental change while remaining the most isolated country in the Western hemisphere.

“It is important for us to look at Latin America,” Chairman Jeff Shell said in introducing the discussion. “Because although it is probably the most open political region in which we work, the media environment is not as free – particularly in Cuba.”